I took the kiddos to see the new movie The Nutcracker and the Four Realms opening weekend, and I was very pleasantly surprised. Disney took quite a broad interpretation of the class Nutcracker tale, and while I didn’t like all of their adaptions, most were very well done. The story is much expanded and there is a lot more drama. Something had to take the place of all that wonder ballet and music after all.

The movie starts very much the same, with a Christmas party at Drosselmeyer’s house. So far we’re really close to being on track with just a little bit of back story and character development to get the movie kicked off. At Drosselmeyer’s house was were the Disney version and the classic tale really diverge, starting with Clara not being gifted a nutcracker.

Instead, Clara is given a mystery to solve and finds herself wandering the world of the Four Realms. I loved these worlds. Disney did a fantastic job of bring them to life and still merging the together through the regents that great Clara. The downside…. I hated the nutcracker. The character could have been wonderful, but the acting was so flat and choppy that it really took me out of the mood and feel of the whole thing.

The Sugar Plum Fairy and Mother Ginger were just about perfect – but here is where the greatest difference is. I can’t really tell you because it would give so much away. (Drop a line on our FB page if you really need to know now and I’ll let you in on the big spoiler.) I’m still on the fence about if I liked the twist from the original or not. Trying to judge an adaption to one of your favorite holiday stories is much harder than I thought, and I don’t want to take away from the originality and storyline of the movie just because it was different.

Scenery, costumes, special effects were all amazing – but this is a Disney film we’re talking about. They very rarely fail to exceed expectations in those areas.​Disney’s adaption of the classic tale from The Nutcracker was not what I expected. It was full of twists and turns – some good and some bad – but overall it was a really fun movie.